Tag: Young Guard
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The Military Life of Bruno d’Ast … (III)
In the meantime, Bruno d’Ast’s family was delighted to receive the news that he had been promoted to the Legion of Honour: they knew that this was the award that their son sought above all else, and we will see in one of the following letters the emotion with which he received this distinction, the…
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Guard Grenadier Philippe Ballut at Lützen and Bautzen, 1813 …
In the evening, with the 2nd Grenadier Regiment occupying the ground on a plateau, the soldiers sighted the town of Lützen, with its round bell tower and a tall belfry tower dominating the large tile roofed buildings. The French cavalry had already entered the town to capture a few stragglers. It was known that Blücher…
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A report on the battle of Craonne, March 1814 …
On 7 March, the general received the order to proceed to Craonne; he was far from expecting to enter the line with troops comprising conscripts who only had been assembled for twenty days, during which time they had travelled more than a hundred leagues and had barely had time to learn how to load a…
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Some notes of a grenadier of the Imperial Guard, 1813 …
A couple of passages of a journal kept by Philippe Ballut, a soldier serving in the 2nd Grenadier Regiment of the Guard, related to the early stages of the 1813 Campaign … Thursday, 29 April. – The Old Guard arrived at Naumburg before noon and we lit our fires at the foot of the tower,…
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An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (IV) …
… The tremendous enthusiasm that had always motivated our battalions was shattered. Ambition had replaced emulation; the army was now commanded only by officers who were brave to the point of recklessness, but without experience or instruction. Soldiers were only looking for the opportunity to leave their corps, to enter hospitals, to flee from danger.…
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An Imperial Guard commander and the 1813 Campaign (I) …
We follow Louis-Joseph Vionnet, Viscount of Maringoné, and his soldiers of the Imperial Guard throughout the 1813 campaign in Germany. … On 30 March at four in the morning, I received the order to depart the next day before daylight. I hastily arranged my affairs and those of the regiment and spent the whole night…
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The battle of Borodino, recounted in a letter of a French colonel …
Copy of the letter written by Colonel D… to Mr. D. P… , at Smolensk. Mozhaysk, 7 September 1812, at 9 o’clock in the evening. I witnessed one of the most formidable battles that have ever been engaged since men first studied the art of destroying each other; I found myself, during the action, successively…